Healthy Soba IKI, One Raffles Place

Found out about this shop (#04-47 One Raffles Place, 1 Raffles Place, tel : +65 6438 6022) from social media not too long ago. Apparently they've been around for years but I haven't heard of them until recently. What appealed to me from their menu was that they had a variety of cold soba - something this country has a dearth of considering that we're under sweltering heat most of the time.

Got a set which came with one mini rice bowl, a soba and tea. This was the lemon soba from their seasonal menu which I knew I had to get. Shredded chicken, daikon oroshi, some sliced okura and lemon in a chilled tsuyu. Very nice and perfect for the sweltering heat that I was talking about. The broth didn't have a similar smokiness like the one from Tokyo Soba and the lemon didn't match the citrus fragrance from the sudachi bowl from Keria but hell yeah it was still enjoyable.

Picked the mini rice bowl that had shirasu and avocado for my set. The only rice bowl option that was only available as part of their set and not available for a la carte in normal size (but then again, maybe I should try asking the next time). I also knew I had to get it because shirasu. And maybe avocado too. This was so good. Warm rice with the saltiness from the fish. 

That chilled lemon dashi broth was so enjoyable. 

Miz Japanese Restaurant, Kampong Bahru Road

Miz (17 Kampong Bahru Road, tel : +65 6225 5761) is a hole-in-the-wall-ish Japanese shophouse eatery I was introduced to a year ago. Didn't take any photos then so here's some from a recent revisit. 

The restaurant serves a variety of commonly seen Japanese food here and function somewhat like a diner/izakaya minus the kushiyaki. Minus frills to so one can also understand why their food and beer is very affordable.

They had some aburi otoro on the cheap(er). Not bad actually but I totally didn't understand why they had to include minced ginger on top.  

Miz has surume tempura. If you didn't already know, surume is a Japanese dried marinated squid/cuttlefish snack. It's salted and also sweet from sugars that are added in the preparation. These are tempura-ed versions of them. Enjoyed chewing on these.

Sashimi was not fancy but pretty decent quality. Maguro's not that great but salmon was better than I had imagined. The hamachi came in thick slices. If I had to critique, the hotate were to thinly sliced. The restaurant even agreed to fry the heads of the amaebi for us.

Sweet tamago. 

Their mentaiko mushrooms were yummy. Portobello caps filled with mentaiko mayo that were grilled/broiled. Juicy and umami.

I've gotten cosier with natto in recent times so that's a natto maki there. I think that was vinegared rice they were using in that maki.

Garlic butter udon was kinda nice. The chewy noodles were chilled and the garlic flavour was pretty well moderated.

Wouldn't recommend the curry udon though. Curry's thin. Improved to the point where I found it addictive as a drinkable broth after adding shichimi but I still don't think it made a good curry udon.

Teriyaki chicken was surprisingly tasty. Chicken was the frozen variety and the sauce was very generic teriyaki if you catch my drift - but it wasn't bad.

I like their shishamo. They don't look very fat but they were filled with eggs. The fish was also well salted. Had seconds

Grilled teriyaki squid was a little chewy and for some reasons, a little gingery too. Meat was a little chewy. Didn't enjoy it as much as the chicken.

That's hamachi kama. It's not bad per se but we've definitely had better.

Beer's $5 a mug during happy hours. Sapporo on tap or Orion from bottle.

As-Shifaa Cafe, Lucky Plaza

I've heard of this nasi ayam stall (#06-52 Lucky Plaza, 304 Orchard Road) for some time already but have never gotten to try them until today. These guys were generous with their fried chicken which was deliciously savoury and crispy. Even the breast meat was tender. To top that, I loved how the flavour of their chicken broth has been well infused into their tasty rice. If a sweet and spicy sambal is your thing, it's there as well. Personally, I would have preferred a bit more heat in that sambal but that's not a deal breaker.

Pray go

It's been about 13 years since we were last at Prego. In retrospect, this dinner reminded us why we never came back. This time, I think the lesson will stick.

There was something called candied orange Gorgonzola. I didn't know what it was but it looked like Gorgonzola that was ripened with orange. If it was truly such a thing. Sounded fun. Anyways, there wasn't much orange and they tasted salty for something that was supposedly candied. #wtf We requested for honey and extra crackers which they obliged. Very nice with the honey.

Green risotto. Pea flavoured I think with spinach and asparagus. Pink things were smoked tuna. The rice was subtly sweet - to put it euphemistically. We asked for Parmesan cheese, a few healthy twists of black pepper from the mill and then dumped the rest of the candied orange Gorgonzola into the rice and it became quite delicious.

Got suckered into ordering their ribeye because there was an option for a sauce of Gorgonzola and veal jus. Not much Gorgonzola flavour in the sauce but it didn't taste bad. 

Regretted immediately when I saw the steak. Didn't look much like ribeye. Meat felt flaccid and lacked char. Was thinking it would be with just salt and pepper but it was scented with rosemary and some other herby stuff to mask the fact that the steak was bland and cheap tasting. Pretty shocked at the standards. Aston makes better at about a third of what this place charges.

Did I mention the meat was sinewy?

Trying dinakdakan

We came across dinakdakan the last time we were here at Asian Food Mall. They're apparently another porcine dish that could be made with pig's ear and face folded in with mayonnaise, lime, onions, vinegar and chilli. And other stuff. We came to try them. Noticed that there were a couple of stalls that were selling these. The one above is from Lutong Pinoy (#B1-16 Lucky Plaza). Creamy and a little greasy in a good way. Yeap, that's a longganisa on the side as well. I like the chicken-y tamarind soup that came with their rice plate. 

This one is from Chick Point a couple of stalls away. I got their dinakdakan with some lechon paksiw. Their rendition of the dinakdakan tasted a little gingery and had more heat coming from the slice chillis but was otherwise pretty similar to Lutong Pinoy. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of ginger in savoury food so no prizes for guessing which one I'm going with the next time I'm here. Say, don't these things taste like the non hotplate version of the sisig at Max's. The soup here didn't have any chicken flavour. 

Putien, Great World

I hadn't realized that Putien has a new restaurant at Great World (#02-149, 1 Kim Seng Promenade) until recently when we stumbled upon it. Between the Michelin starred flagship at Kitchener Road, Raffles City and Marina Square, this one has got the best service yet.

Got a refreshing bayberry tea. The bayberries are also encased in the ice cubes. 

Ordered some of the stuff we knew we enjoyed from them. Like their braised pig intestines.

And their well received Heng Hwa bee hoon. The prawns here were noticeably sweet. Then again, I might not have noticed previously because I tend to drench the noodles with a generous portion of their delicious lime-y chilli sauce.

One of our guilty pleasures from Putien is their stir fried yam. Yam cubes stir fried with fish sauce and sugar. Both of which are caramelized into a crisp shell of savoury sweetness encasing piping hot yam. We've been guilty in the past of shovelling these into our faces even when we were stuffed.

Loquat in herbal jelly for dessert. Strange I remember this being citrusy in the past when it wasn't today.